The culminating Battle of Sybota subsequently led to the Potidaean Affair and the Megarian Decree, both also major contributors to the final outbreak of hostilities between Athens and Sparta, beginning the Peloponnesian War.
According to Thucydides, her proximity to nearby barbarian tribes led to wars, one of which eventually weakened the ruling Oligarchic coalition, leading to a coup that installed a Democratic regime.
The Oligarchs defected to the attacking Illyrian tribes, who in turn proceeded to sack and plunder the Epidamnian countryside while notably, their mother colony Corcyra refused to intervene.
Instead of meeting with the usual honours accorded to the parent city by every other colony at public assemblies, such as precedence at sacrifices, Corinth found herself treated with contempt by a power which in point of wealth could stand comparison with any even of the richest communities in Hellas.
[6] Intimidated, the Corcyraean leadership attempted to come to terms with Corinth via Spartan, Peloponnesian, or Delphic mediation, but were stymied by Corinthian stubbornness on the matter.
[11] The speed with which Corinth turned an utter humiliation into an opportunity to build the third-largest fleet in Greece has led the historian Ronald Legon to call it one of the "most significant military developments of the fifth century" in his analysis of antebellum naval power balance.
"[16] In addition, the Corinthians were clearly the aggressors in the conflict, and although such an alliance seemed to violate the spirit of the Thirty Years' Peace between Sparta and Athens after the First Peloponnesian War, it was not explicitly disallowed, since Corcyra belonged to neither power bloc.
[17] On the other hand, the Athenians felt no special affinity or ties with the Corcyraeans and were afraid of embroiling themselves in a larger conflict with Corinth or even the Peloponnesian League.
Led by the famous statesman Pericles, the Athenians, instead of a full symmachia, or defensive-offensive alliance, would only establish a defensive epimachia, agreeing to assist Corcyra only when it was aggressively attacked by Corinth first.
According to Plutarch's Parallel Lives, Pericles "advised the people to send help to the Corcyræans, who were attacked by the Corinthians, and to secure to themselves an island possessed of great naval resources, since the Peloponnesians were already all but in actual hostilities against them.
The feeling of insecurity in the aftermath of the partial defeat led Athens to pre-emptively dismantle the walls around its tributary of Potidaea, beginning the so-called Potidaean Affair.
For example, an archaeological study of coinage by the numismatist Jonathan Kagan corroborated and added detail to Thucydides's account of Athenian and Corcyraean support for Epidamnus.